Tiger Woods addressed the media Tuesday ahead of his Hero World Challenge in Albany — an event he was supposed to play in before withdrawing Monday due to plantar fasciitis.
While he answered questions about his health and future goals on the golf course, Woods also came out firing against LIV Golf and its leader, Greg Norman.
“I think (Greg Norman) has to go, first of all,” said Woods, “and then obviously the litigation against us and then our countersuit against them. Those would then have to be at a stay as well, then we can talk, we can all talk freely.”
Woods was also asked: “Part of those changes you talked about, there’s a lot more money coming in at tournaments from the Tour that weren’t available before LIV came around. A guy like Mickelson, for example, obviously is the face of that, and he took a lot of criticism and he’s taken most of the bullets for that and he was criticized heavily by players on Tour for it who now will be making a lot more money at tournaments because of him shaking that tree. Do you feel like to some degree they owe an apology … ”
“No, absolutely not, no,” Woods said. “We took out an enormous loan during the pandemic in which that, if we had another year of the pandemic, our Tour would only be sustained for another year. So we took out an enormous loan. It worked, it paid off in our benefit, hence we were able to use that money to make the increases that we’ve made.”
Mickelson was quick to log in to Twitter to address the response, pointing out pieces from the Tour’s 2018 990 form: “1.6 billion in stocks 700 million in cash 1.15 billion in non liquid assets. This is from the non profit section.”
Pga tour IRS 990 form from 2018
1.6 billion in stocks
700 million in cash
1.15 billion in non liquid assets.
This is from the non profit section. The for profit section hasn’t been stated since 2012 but was more than the non profit part at that time.
This can all be googled— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) November 29, 2022
Mickelson has tweeted a mere nine times since Feb. 22 when he posted his apology for his “scary motherf*****s” comments regarding LIV Golf.
In an interview with Alan Shipnuck of the Fire Pit Collective earlier this year, Mickelson said: “They are already sitting on an $800 million cash stockpile. How do you think they’re funding the PIP? Or investing $200 million in the European Tour? The Tour is supposed to be a nonprofit that distributes money to charity. How the (hell) is it legal for them to have that much cash on hand? The answer is, it’s not.”
